Lights Out
by Super Chino
Summary: Even at 16 years old, turns out Seth is still a little skittish in the dark...and Ryan, who is unphased by the black of night, plans on taking full advantage of that!
1. Lights Out

Lights Out 

(One Shot)

"I haven't seen it rain like this in years," Sandy stated, mulling over the view outside. Sheets of rain beat against the window blurring the scenery outside. "How did Ryan get back in the pool house? I thought he was upstairs with Seth."

Standing in the doorway, Kirsten wrestled with the stubborn back of her earring. "I thought he was upstairs too. I really wish he'd stay upstairs tonight."

"Honey, it's just rain, he won't melt."

"I know, but it's pretty bad. I'd feel better if I knew he was okay."

"Okay? Honey, this is Ryan we're talking about. I promise you, he's completely unaffected by any of this."

With the slam of the patio door, Ryan stumbled in, half drenched.

"Ryan, you're soaked," Kirsten mothered.

"It's just water," Ryan answered, giving a quick shake of his hair, causing Sandy to gloat with a look that said 'I told you so.'

"I wish we didn't have to go out tonight. As if it's not bad enough that the weather is what it is, we get to spend the evening with my Dad and Julie," Kirsten complained.

"It's kind of like experiencing one natural disaster after another," Sandy mocked.

"Sandy. Stop it."

Entering the kitchen, "Ryan, dude, you get the games?"

"You made him go out in that, for games?" Kirsten questioned.

"It's just rain Mom." As if it were planned, a flash of lightning illuminated the dark kitchen, immediately followed by a crash of thunder. "Okay, so, maybe it's a little bit more than just rain."

"What's the matter? You afraid?" Ryan teased.

"I'm not afraid Ryan."

"Liar," he sneered.

"I just, don't like storms. Some people think they're cool. I'd rather it go back to being sunny outside."

Seth wasn't happy to see Ryan smirking as he poured himself a glass of juice.

"Ryan, don't…smile like that. You're creeping me out."

Unsure of what was running through Ryan's head, Seth dropped the subject and both boys disappeared into the den with their animated stash.

"Okay guys, we're off to the haunted mansion to spend the evening with the gruesome twosome. There's garlic in the fridge and silver bullets in my desk drawer if you need them."

"That's so not necessary Dad."

Working the controller in his hands, Ryan egged Sandy on. "Where do you keep the wooden stakes?"

"Front hall closet, on the shelf."

"Good to know."

Pausing the game with his controller, "Enough already! What is it with you two?"

"What's the matter? Afraid to be left home alone without Mommy and Daddy on a night like this?"

"No, of course not."

"You should be…"

Later that evening, in the middle of a heated game, "Ryan, you've already stabbed me four times. Don't you think that's enough?"

"No."

"Ryan, you can't do that, it's cheating."

"It's not cheating."

"It is too!" In the middle of Seth's complaint, Ryan's character whipped a knife at Seth's onscreen counterpart, killing him instantly.

"Take that."

Throwing his controller up in the air, Seth's mouth opened with the intention of laying into Ryan for winning…again. Instead, he was cut off by a vivid flash of lightning and a crescendo of thunder as the house plummeted into silent darkness.

The boys sat quietly on the couch for a moment. As usual, it was Seth that couldn't take the silence.

"Well that's just great Ryan! You did this on purpose!"

"I can't control the weather Seth."

"You did this so I can't challenge your wins! You're afraid I'll beat you so you asked the storm Gods to knock out the power."

"Yep. That's it."

"See, you admit it!"

"Actually, I'd rather kick your ass with my controller than sit here in the dark."

"Kick my a…you know, it's one thing to be talented Ryan, it's another to be glib about it."

"Are you done?"

"Yeah, for now."

"Good because we gotta find some candles."

Standing up, Ryan groped around in the dark trying to make his way to the kitchen. He knew there were matches in the utility drawer. The monster bolt of lightning seemed to have drained the remaining flashes of their power. The light flickering in through the windows didn't offer much as a way to help light his path.

"Ouch!"

"Ry? You okay?"

"Yeah. Turns out there's a wall here."

"I think I'll just stay here until you come back."

"Right. Because looking for the candles would mean expending your last bits of energy and I'm sure you don't have much left after that ass whooping I just gave you."

"Can you feel my glare in the dark Ryan? Can you? Because it's huge."

"Can't feel a thing Seth," Ryan yelled from the kitchen.

"Figures."

Finally locating the matches in the drawer, Ryan reached for a glass for the discarded matches before stumbling his way back to the den.

"Alright, here we go." Striking a match against the side of the box, Ryan's face glowed while he lowered the match to the candle on the coffee table.

"Ryan no!" Seth screamed, blowing out the match with a huff.

"Seth! What the hell?"

In complete darkness once again, "Ryan, those are not 'burning' candles. Those are 'decoration' candles."

"What?"

"In English, it means the Kirsten will kill you if you burn those."

"Women. Fine. So were are there candles we can use?"

"I would think in the linen closet."

"Upstairs?"

"Yeah. Good luck with that."

Hearing Ryan's footsteps crossing the room, "Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom and then to get the candles…Ouch!"

"I'm not sure that's a wise idea dude."

"The bathroom still works Seth, we're on public water and sewer here. Which means our plumbing has nothing to do with electricity," Ryan explained, still walking down the dark hallway with his arms out.

"Good to know. Just remember Ryan…if it doesn't sound like water, you're peeing on the wrong thing!"

"Grow up Seth!"

This sucked. Royally. Seth hated this. Here he sat, in the dark, with nothing to do. At least nothing he wanted to do. And there was Ryan, walking around the house, using the bathroom and looking for things as if the power was still on. Seth could only sit and shake his head. May as well let Ryan get the candles, he didn't seem to mind crashing into furniture or the possibility of breaking his neck on the blackened staircase. Must have something to do with all those years of slinking around dark alleys in Chino. Ryan was obviously comfortable in the dark, definitely nocturnal. Seth was more of a sunshine guy. He was more than content to just sit and wait for Ryan to return and damned if Ryan wasn't taking his sweet time.

But Ryan didn't return.

The house fell quiet with the only sound being that of the pelting rain outside and the occasional clap of thunder. Suddenly aware of his surroundings, Seth's neck got long. "Ryan?…Ry?"

Nothing.

"Ryan…come on man. Don't do this."

Nothing.

Seth felt his heart lurch. What if something happened? What if Ryan fell down the stairs? What if he's laying in the house somewhere, hurt? Standing up abruptly, Seth took baby steps while bent over and swinging his arms in front of him hoping to find anything in the way of his legs. His brainstorm worked well until he reached the kitchen and walked into the breakfast bar with his head.

"Oh God, that hurt!" Seth moaned, holding his head. "Ryan? This is serious now. I think I just split my head open."

Nothing.

"Ryan? Dude come on! I'm sure I've got a hematoma or something seriously medical! Get in here!"

Nothing.

Removing his hand from his forehead, Seth squinted with one eye into the darkness. Where the hell was Ryan? Surely peeing and finding candles wouldn't take this long.

Against his better judgment, Seth made his way toward the living room where he saw a faint glow coming from the direction of the bathroom.

Walking toward the halo of light, "Ryan? Are you down there? I don't hear anything in there. Don't let me walk in on you dude, that's just repulsive!"

The rain continued to beat against the house as Seth turned around to look at the dark path behind him. Swallowing nervously he continued toward the bathroom, whispering reassurances to himself.

"I'm sure he just fell asleep in the bathroom…or…maybe on the floor by the linen closet. It's dark, Ryan likes to sleep. He's asleep, that's all."

Being quite stealth, Seth ducked his head in the bathroom. A lone votive candle was lit on the vanity, but Ryan was nowhere to be found. Just as Seth turned away, he noticed something on the floor. Bending down, he picked the item up…Ryan's watch.

"Oh my God! Something happened to him! Ryan! Ry! Are you okay? Ryan? I'm going to call 911! Dude this is serious!"

Nothing.

A door slammed upstairs. There shouldn't be any doors slamming upstairs. Seth swallowed his pounding heart and headed toward the stairs.

"Wait a minute…the hell with decorator candles." Snatching a seashell shaped candle off the foyer table, Seth backtracked to the bathroom and lit its wick. The lightning had increased again, the flashes aiding his climb on the stairs. When he reached the top of the stairs, he frowned at the mirror on the wall. There was something wrong with it. To Seth's horror, a bright flicker of lightning revealed words on it. Holding his candle closer, Seth read the words written in red…

'Don't call anyone!'

"Don't call anyone…oh my God there's someone in the house! I'm so not cut out for this!"

Backing down the stairs, Seth's mortality was tested when something, or someone, clamped down around his ankle.

"AAAHHH! Let go! Let go! I'm too young to die!"

With his ankle released, Seth scrambled back up the stairs, gasping as if he'd just run a marathon. The sound of someone dragging their fingernails across the inside of the wooden door downstairs could be heard, followed by a deep breath. With that, the glow of the candle in the bathroom went out.

"Oh my God I'm gonna die!" Seth whispered to himself.

Thinking it was best to hide out in his room, Seth used his candle to light his way. When he reached his bedroom the door was partially closed. He never does that. Ever. The door is either open or closed. It's never half way. With a racing heart, he gently pushed the door open, mentally acknowledging this was a very, very bad idea according to every horror movie he'd ever seen. Something scraped on the back of the door. Pushing it father, something slid from behind it, causing Seth to jump back. Raising his candle up, he found Captain Oates swinging from a make shift noose.

"Damn it Ryan! That's not funny!" Seth barked, setting the candle down on the floor and freeing Captain Oates from his captive punishment. "You think that's funny do you? This is war Ryan!"

From his crouching location on the stairs, Ryan stifled his laugh.

"There ya go Oates. Is that better? Huh? Let's put you somewhere safe until that evil Ryan disappears at sunlight okay?"

Shuffling into his room, he hid Captain Oates in the one place he was sure Ryan wouldn't mess with…his underwear drawer. Taking one step around the corner of his bed, he heard his own bedroom door slam shut.

"This is starting to lose its comic relief Ryan." Pulling on the doorknob Seth was shocked to learn he was locked in his room. "Ryan? Ryan, come on man! You know how I get! I'm going to suffocate in here! I'm feeling claustrophobic Ryan! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Unrecognizable sounds could be heard outside his door, quiet muffled sounds. And then all was quiet again.

"Now see, this is the part in the movie where the guy opens the door and gets eaten by the by alien or chopped up by the serial killer. Fine. You know what, that's fine. It's my room, I'll just stay here."

Crossing back to his bed, more muffled scratching came from the door…and then the lock clicked. Even though he couldn't see his door in the dark, he recognized the slight squeak of the hinges as it swung open slowly.

"Damn it!" Seth whispered to himself. "Alright. You win okay? I'm coming out and I'm only going to warn you once…I have hot wax here and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Baby stepping his way back to the doorway, Seth inched his way over the threshold. Making the mistake of putting the candle too far out in front of himself, he was horrified when a hand grabbed his arm.

"AAHH! Ow! OW! HOT!" he screamed as the hot wax from the candle spilled onto his hand. Blowing on his skin he hoped to sooth the burn, but instead…he blew his candle out.

"Shit!"

Stomping his foot at his own stupidity, he forced himself to look up and down the blackened hallway. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how long he waited for his eyes to adjust, he still couldn't see a thing. Back to baby stepping, he inched his way toward the staircase. He was starting to feel pretty good about the progress he was making when he felt something bounce off the back of his head.

"What the…"

Turning in the direction of the projectile, another item bounced off his face.

"Ow! What the hell are you throwing!"

After being hit two more times, Seth fled as fast as he could manage to shuffle in the direction of the stairs. Tripping over a throw rug in the process, he went crashing onto the floor.

"I am never going to live this down!"

Crawling forward, Seth scooted down the stairs until he reached the bottom. Sitting on the bottom stair, he heard the lock on the front door being messed with.

"That's it! I've had enough! Ryan has been running around tormenting me all night and I'm going to get the last laugh! He is not going to get away with this!"

Raising the seashell candle high above his head, Seth put one hand on the door handle and prepared to hand Ryan his ass.

Yanking the door open, "AH HA!" Seth yelled in a primal scream just as the power came back on…scaring the daylights out of his parents on the doorstep. "Mom? Dad? Well…where's Ryan?"

Still clinging to each other after the greeting they'd received, "Ryan? Why would Ryan be out here?" his Dad questioned.

"If you sent him out in this weather to get something else for you…" his Mother warned, pushing her way into the house.

"I didn't send him anywhere. Look, you don't understand the night I had! We were playing the games and then there was this lightning bolt from hell and everything shut off so Ryan thought he'd get candles but he had to pee first except he never came back so I went looking for him and he wasn't in the bathroom and I got worried and said I was calling the cops but I couldn't because there was a message that said I couldn't and then Captain Oates was hanging in a noose on my bedroom door and I knew it was Ryan then and not an intruder but damn he's quick and I just couldn't get the upper hand you know? And then I burned my hand on candle wax and blew my candle out thanks to him because he scared the crap out of me upstairs and then he was throwing things at me but I don't know what he was throwing at me so I came down here and I heard the noises at the door and I figured he was messing with me again so I thought I'd show him a thing or two so I opened the door and there you were…and Ryan's still missing!"

Silence.

"Have you been drinking?" Kirsten asked her paranoid son.

"What? No! Of course not! Why would you ask me that?"

"Seth, Ryan is right behind you," Sandy explained.

Whirling around, sure enough. There he was, innocently leaning against the wall and looking smug.

"Well…where did you come from?"

"I've been right here, since you answered the door," Ryan shrugged matter-of-factly.

"Ryan, what happened here tonight?"

Maintaining his innocence, "It's like Seth said, we were playing the games and the power went out. I went looking for candles. That's it."

"That's it he says…as if none of that other stuff happened," Seth fumed, knowing he was being painted as a raging lunatic at the moment. "He has spent the last forty-five minutes chasing me through the house, doing everything in his power to freak me out!"

"Honey, you always were a little paranoid when the lights went out."

"Way to be supportive Mom. Thanks."

"Seth, please tell me you didn't light that seashell candle honey, that was a special candle."

Fueling the fire, "I tried to tell him that was for decoration," Ryan added.

"What! I….you…oh…oh…fine Ryan. Fine! It's on!"

"Well the power's on now so there's no point in disputing all of this any further. Everyone is here and accounted for. Your Mother brought some pastries back for you guys," Sandy explained, brushing off the incident.

Walking toward the stairs with the box of candles in his hand, "Cool. I'm just going to put these away. I'll be right back."

Watching Ryan jog up the stairs, Seth snatched the bag of desserts away from his Mom. "I'm going to get first pick. Ryan can have the crumbs!"

"Seth, be nice."

"Mom, you have no idea what I've been through tonight. Ryan turns into the devil child during a power outage. The only thing that didn't happen was a priest showing up to exorcize the spirits within and return him to normal."

"Seth. Enough."

"I don't believe this. Everyone thinks I'm whacked! I'm going to go drown myself in pastries!"

Smiling at her more fragile son, she glanced toward the ceiling and decided she'd track down her bolder, braver son upstairs. She found him at the top of the stairs polishing the mirror. Pulling his hand away, she looked at the paper towel in his hand…it was stained red.

Trying to refrain from laughing, "Ryan, would this happen to have anything to do with the scary message Seth found?"

"What message?"

"Uh huh. What did the ghost write it with?"

Pretending to study the napkin, "Looks like lipstick."

Suddenly not laughing, "Lipstick? Ryan, that lipstick is twenty-five dollars a tube!"

Raising his eyebrows, "You should try Maybeline. It's only six bucks per stick."

"Should I be concerned that you know how much lipstick costs?" she chuckled.

Laughing along, "No. Not really. It's a good tool for graffiti…it doesn't wash off easily. It was a Chino thing."

"Please get your own lipstick from now on. Actually, I'd rather if you didn't play with lipstick…at all."

"Okay."

"Did you really scare him that bad?"

"Oh yeah. He thought he was going to die at one point," Ryan smirked.

Sharing a laugh, "Remind me to never be left home alone with you during a storm. Ew. Did I just step on…is that a, a grape?"

"Ah, yeah. There's about four or five more of them laying around. I'll pick them up."

Kirsten was starting to get the picture of just how interesting the night had been.

In the kitchen, Seth parked himself at the table and rummaged through the bag of pastries, mumbling to himself. "He thinks he got away with this, I'll show him." Slapping a pastry down on his napkin, "I tried to tell him that was a decorative candle," Seth mocked in a whiney voice. "He wouldn't know a decorative candle if it came up and bit him in the ass!"

"Seth?"

"Dad…Hi."

"What are you babbling about?"

"Nothing," he garbled with a mouthful of éclair.

"You sure? Need to talk about anything?"

"Nope." Licking the chocolate off his fingers, he continued to ignore his father and kept eating.

"Okay, then. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

Waiting to make sure his Dad was out of earshot, "Ryan's just in for a rude awakening, that's all. Maybe not tonight or tomorrow night, but sooner or later he'll go to bed and sooner or later it's going to be lights out. He'll see. You'll all see.


	2. Revenge

**A/N – For those who enjoyed 'Lights Out' and hoped Seth might get some revenge…**

Revenge 

Groggily, Ryan forced his eyes open and swatted at his alarm clock. He was thankful that it was Friday but he still had to get through the day first. Throwing his legs over the side, he dragged himself into an upright position and headed off to the bathroom to start his morning routine.

Feeling a little bit more rejuvenated, he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He eyed the robe hanging on the back of his bathroom door. Kirsten had bought it for him but he couldn't bring himself to wear it. He just wasn't a 'robe' sort of guy. Grabbing hold of the door to the medicine cabinet, he swung it open and retrieved his shaving cream and his razor before pushing it closed. Shaking the can vigorously, he pressed a dollop of shaving cream into his hand and rubbed it across his face before he froze, while his brain caught up with the rest of him. Setting the can down on the counter, he frowned at the mirror in front of him and curiously opened the door again. Frowning even harder at the site on the shelf. Eyes. There were two eyes on the shelf. Well, not literally, but someone had taken the time to convert two hard-boiled eggs and some olives and pimentos into eyes.

A smirk found it's way onto his creamed face. Seth. This was going to get interesting. Seth was out of his league on this one, but Ryan was willing to let him try. Removing the eggs from his medicine cabinet, Ryan was thankful he'd discovered them. Would've been disgusting to find them even later in the day. Getting back to his morning ritual, Ryan finished up and headed into the house for breakfast.

"Morning."

"Ryan," Seth mumbled. "And how is your morning?"

"Fine."

"Just fine?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing…unusual about your morning?"

"No."

Unhappy with the lack of disruption to Ryan's morning routine Seth went back to stabbing his scrabbled eggs and Ryan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

Seth spent the rest of the morning sulking but perked up when they came across Marissa on the school grounds.

"I'll just…leave you two to talk. I've got things…see ya."

Watching Seth scurry up the steps to the school, Marissa turned to Ryan and raised an eyebrow. "There's something wrong with him."

"Yeah. He's trying to get even with me for something I did to him. No doubt he's off to do something to my locker."

"He wouldn't do that…would he?"

Nodding, "I pranked him pretty bad last weekend."

"If you know he's going to mess with your stuff, why don't you stop him?"

"Because getting even is more fun than getting angry," he smirked. "How much room do you have in your locker?"

Seth noticed Ryan walking in solo just as the warning bell was ringing. He'd only have four more minutes to get to his locker and then get to class. He watched Ryan open his locker and nonchalantly empty his backpack of its contents before slamming the door shut and continuing onto class. The fact that everything else was missing from his locker didn't even phase him. He broke into a gait at the end of the hallway in order to avoid being late while Seth stood dumbfounded at his second backfired idea. With the last bell ringing, signaling the start of the day, Seth found himself caught by one of the roaming hall monitors.

"Young man, you're supposed to be in class now. That's a pink slip for you. Give me your ID." Pulling out her tablet, she scribbled some notes and waited for Seth to cough up his ID.

"This is all part of his plan. You realize that don't you?"

"Yes, I know, it's always somebody else's fault." Taking Seth's ID out of his hand, she continued to fill out the pink slip.

Huffing in disgust, "I'm serious! You don't understand what he's capable of!"

"Who?"

"Who? I'll tell you who, Ryan Atwood. Name ring any bells? Scruffy little guy always being caught in the hallway kissing girls. I'm sure you've seen him."

"No, I haven't, which means he's in class…which is where you belong." Handing Seth the pink slip, "Now get moving."

Sulking through all of first period, Seth trucked back across the quad to his locker to exchange his books. Still frustrated, he worked his combination and yanked the door open. Empty. Puzzled he stood there for a moment before slowly closing the door and double-checking the number on the locker. It was his alright, but where the hell was his stuff? Where the hell was Ryan's… RYAN!

Slamming the door, Seth moved down a few lockers to Ryan's locker. Knowing Ryan's locker combination, he worked the dial over and yanked the door open. "AHA!" But the victory was short lived when the inside of Ryan's locker proved to only contain the items Seth saw him unload from his bag.

"Well, what the hell? He's behind this, I know it. That's alright. It's okay. I'll get him. I'm not through with him yet."

As another bell rang, signaling the start of the next class, Seth slammed Ryan's locker door shut and found himself face to face with the less-than-pleasant hall monitor he'd encountered earlier.

"Mrs. Leary. Hi." Seth tried to lay it on thick with the biggest smile he could manage.

"This is not the way to start the weekend Mr. Cohen."

"I know, I know and I'm sorry. You can check me out, I'm not a troublemaker. Matter of fact, I haven't been late to class all year, I'm just having a bad day, could you please just cut me some slack?"

"Let me guess, this is still someone else's fault?"

"Yes! It is! It's my brother, well, he's not actually my brother…but he is. Not by blood though. Anyway, he's onto me. See, he's walking around pretending not to notice anything, but I know he knows, but he doesn't want to show me he knows so he's playing it cool and in the process of playing it cool, he's turning the tables on me!"

"Have you been drinking?"

"NO! Don't you see! He's setting me up!"

Handing Seth a second pink slip, "He's doing a good job. If I were you, I'd give up for today. One more of these I'll you'll be starting your weekend in detention."

Snatching the slip out of her hand, he crumpled it up, drawing a look of disgust from the hall monitor.

"It…fits better…in my pocket, this way."

Turning on her heel, she left Seth standing in the hallway, wondering how Ryan managed to get the best of him. Again.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, Seth was half out of his mind. Throwing his books down on the table outside, he sat down, alone, and focused on the cars in the student parking lot. It didn't take long for Ryan to find him.

"Hey man. Where's your lunch? They've got tuna melts today."

"Not really in the mood for tuna, Ryan."

"Since when? You love those. What's the matter, have a bad morning?"

"Pfft! As if you don't know!"

Maintaining a straight face, "No, I don't. Something happen?"

Giving Ryan the 'talk to the hand' signal, Seth chose not to answer that question. Instead he noticed Ryan pulling out his Chemistry book and a worksheet.

"That's your Chemistry book."

"Yep, need to borrow it?"

"No, but, where did you get it from?"

Ryan gave Seth a look of confusion, "My locker." Frowning easily at Seth, Ryan sipped on his bottle of water."

"It was really in your locker?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

Realizing he was coming dangerously close to admitting wrongdoing, "I thought you forgot it."

"Nope, right here."

"That's good. So, there's tuna melts huh?"

"Yeah. It's on the board."

"What are you eating?"

"Egg salad." Ignoring Seth, Ryan engrossed himself in his worksheet, completely missing Seth's dirty look which included sticking his tongue out. He just 'had' to have egg salad. That was a dig. Seth knew that much.

"I'll see you later man."

Ryan licked the mayonnaise off his fingers and smiled at the back of Seth's head. He was deliciously delighted that Seth was spending the day wondering where all the books went.

Seth may as well have had the Charlie Brown teacher for the rest of the day. All of the teacher's voices just blurred into the background. He had to get the upper hand. Somehow.

When the second to the last period rolled around, Seth moped to the locker room for gym. He hated gym. No. He loathed gym. Frustrated over the course of his day, he worked the combination on his gym locker and attempted to tug it open, however, it appeared to be stuck. Pulling harder, the door pulled away from him and slammed shut again.

"Oh what the hell!" he crabbed, grabbing the door hard and pulling it.

The action freed the door alright and snapped his jock loose and plastered it to his face. He stood there stunned for a moment, thankful that he had never been interested enough in sports to actually wear this particular piece of his gym uniform. It was at this time that it occurred to him that his jock was normally completely buried in the back of the locker, since he had no intention of showing it the light of day. Someone was in his locker. Ryan.

"Oh he is so dead!"

"COHEN!"

Seth's head snapped in the direction of the angry voice, the jock still stuck to his head.

"What in God's name are you doing?"

"Coach Davis. Just a bit of…equipment trouble…sir."

"I'll say! For starters Cohen, you've got that on the wrong head!"

"Yes sir," Seth mumbled, pulling the jock off of his head.

"Now get your act together! You're wasting my time! If you're not in the gym in two minutes, you're getting pinked!"

"Pinked?"

"A pink slip! Cohen, you scare me! Get moving!"

Seth was beginning to regret opening this can of worms. Clearly he was out of his league. Ryan was the best there is. On the verge of admitting defeat, he changing for class and went into the gym. He couldn't afford another pink slip, but as the bell rang when he entered the gym, it came as no surprise that Coach Davis was already holding out the perky piece of paper.

Ryan made his way home from school and was greeted by Kirsten.

"Hey Ryan. How was school?"

"Good. I'm glad it's the weekend though."

Realizing only one child had come home, "Where's Seth?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe he went out with Summer. I waited for him but he never came out so I left. I'm going to knock out my homework, I don't have much."

"Okay sweetie. I'll call you when it's time for dinner."

The remainder of the afternoon went by in a hurry and before Ryan knew it, he was being beckoned to the dinner table. Taking his seat, he noticed Seth wasn't at the table.

Dinner was quiet. Sandy and Kirsten were both tired from a long day and Ryan was just hoping they wouldn't ask him about Seth again.

Approximately halfway through the meal, Seth wandered in looking like he'd just come off a three-day bender. His hair was sticking out all over and half of his shirt was tucked in while the other half was hanging down over his jeans. Roughly pulling out his chair, he took a seat next to Ryan, staring him down the entire time.

"What the hell happened to you?" Ryan asked innocently.

"What happened to me? What happened…to me? I'll tell you Ryan. This…is what happens when you put a scrawny little guy like me in detention with all the water polo players and the Chino wanna-be's."

"You got detention?"

"Oh yeah," Seth confirmed, nodding his head violently. "You know, I knew you were good, but I had no idea you were unbeatable."

Instantly interested in the dinner interruption, "What are you talking about?" Sandy asked his son.

"Dad, you can take the boy out of Chino but you can't take the Chino out of the boy."

"Seth! That's a terrible thing to say!" his Father reprimanded. "Ryan has made amazing strides since he…"

"Oh yeah, no doubt he has Dad…but the key here, is that he hasn't forgotten his roots. Oh no he hasn't. He can be evil and conniving and deceptive and…"

"Seth, that's enough," his Mother warned, plating up his dinner.

"That's enough? That's enough she says."

"Well, I'm still trying to understand all of this. Did you have a bad day or something?" Sandy asked, pressing the issue against his wife's will.

"A bad day? Dad, a bad day would have been a blessing! You want to know about my day? I'll tell you about my day. First it started with breakfast because Ryan was just weird. He should have noticed but he didn't notice and by breakfast it didn't matter. So then at school there were some books and then all of the books but when I came back there were NO books and in the middle of that Mrs. Leary enjoyed putting her penmanship on not one, but two pink slips for me. But you know what? It didn't end there because then I saw him at lunch and that lead to the tuna melts because he was trying to make all nice with me but it was beyond nice at that point and tuna melts weren't going to help. But the icing on the cake was my stuck gym locker that resulted in me being attacked by my own jock which pissed off Coach Davis something fierce and, ultimately, resulted in another pink slip."

At the mention of the attack of the jock Ryan couldn't control himself any more and spit his drink out all over the table.

"Oh, Ryan," Kirsten moaned, disgusted. Quickly grabbing some napkins she wiped up the table.

"Sor…" he tried to offer but couldn't stop coughing.

"Air is overrated Ryan. You should have enjoyed it while you had it."

Aggravated, Seth pushed back from the table and went outside.

Finally regaining his composure, "I'll, I'll go talk to him," Ryan offered.

Approaching cautiously, "Hey man."

"Go back inside and squirt some more Snapple out of your nose!"

Smirking, Ryan took a seat across from Seth. "Seth…"

"No. Don't. You've had all day to back off, but did you? Nooooo!"

"Seth, I didn't do anything."

"Oh no? Then who took the books and who rigged up my jock? Ryan, I got three pink slips in one day because of you! I've never had three pink slips in my life!"

"I didn't mean to get you the pink slips okay? But look, I grew up with Trey as my older brother. I learned to get the advantage at a young age."

"You're evil Ryan. Spawn of the devil himself."

"Thanks."

"No, I mean it."

"I know."

Blowing air through his lips, Seth stared at the ocean for a bit, "Okay, no you're not. You're just…better at this than me. Truce?"

"It's probably in your best interest."

"Fine. I quit."

"Cool."

Ryan stood up to return to the kitchen to finish his dinner.

"Oh, Ryan?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I have my books back?"

"What books?"

"Oh don't you start! Don't you even think about it!" After a beat, "You do…have my books…right? Ryan? Ry?"

(The End) : D


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